Mercedes will reportedly have to make more changes to their cars for the 2022 F1 season after apparently failing to pass the latest FIA crash tests, a claim the manufacturer denies. The procedure is mandatory for all teams and cars ahead of a new campaign, to help ensure the safety of drivers should they be involved in a collision on the track.
Mercedes chiefs have been working vigorously on their new W13 vehicle, as they seek to adapt to major changes in regulations ahead of the new campaign, which gets underway in Bahrain on March 20.
Having already released snippets of the new car on social media, all will be officially unveiled on February 18, just five days before pre-season testing begins in Barcelona.
However, according to the Italian version of Motorsport.com the Silver Arrows, Constructors’ champions for the past eight seasons, failed the crash test last week on the side of the W13.
They weren’t the only ones though, with same website also reporting that Red Bull didn’t pass either, failing on the front of the new RB18, and like Mercedes now have work to do ahead of the testing sessions in Spain.
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The development is not said to be major inconvenience to Toto Wolff’s team, with the team already having teed up a ‘plan B’ option if their original designs failed, with last week’s failure only set to cause a minor delay in their preparation.
However, Mercedes deny those claims with a spokesperson telling gpblog: “We completed homologation several weeks ago.”
Mercedes design boss James Allison recently sent a video message to fans admitting “It has been incredibly hard,” preparing for the overhaul of rules and regulations.
“Very challenging, and long, to get our heads around this and to try to figure out what the best response is to these regulations, and where the opportunity is to be found in order to put a car on the track in a few short weeks from now, that gives us a chance of being competitive right from the beginning,” he said.
The build-up to the campaign has thus been far dominated by the uncertainty over the future of Lewis Hamilton, who is yet to confirm if he’ll continue in F1.
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